The briefing note used to justify the project was a joke. Based on what has been published, it looks like contract splitting was done! However, I'm sure that the DM had the authority to both order the renovations and sign the contract. After all, the Financial Administration Act would not apply as he is too important.
Hmm. PWGSC did the work on DND's behalf and would have issued all the contracts. If you look closely, they indicate that contract limits meant they couldn't compress the schedule as much as they wanted to - so they did respect the FAA.
Given that it's a secure area, it means that all contractors would have required security clearances. Oddly enough, most general labourers don't have security clearances, meaning the ones that do are more expensive to hire. Even once you hire contractors with clearances, you are still required to provide on-site physical supervision of them - so that's additional costs.
The news reports have stated that secure conference facilities were installed. I am not an expert in the field, but I do know that creating EMSEC zones does not come cheap.
Finally, and unfortunately, Ottawa is a government town. All the contractors (in every field) know almost to the dollar what they can charge for their work, and there's little incentive to compete on price. Indeed, if you ever want a furnished apartment in Ottawa you'll discover that they all cost exactly the same amount - which, oddly enough, is exactly what the government pays for people on IR...
As I stated before, the timing of this was less than ideal. But this was not merely rearranging a few cubicles - there were walls to move, security considerations, costs for the temporary relocation of those involved...while it makes for good, outraged headlines, I suspect a review by the OAG would be rather boring and anticlimactic.
